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Toronto’s leading mayoral candidates are united in both their enthusiasm for new transit construction and reluctance to talk in detail about their proposals to pay for that construction.

Halfway into the 10-month campaign, two of the leading candidates have not released any kind of funding plan. Preliminary plans issued by the three other contenders leave significant questions unanswered.

The candidates argue that much of the money, perhaps two-thirds, will be delivered by the federal and provincial governments. Even if you believe them — such arrangements are indeed standard — their proposals for the city’s own third are either nonexistent or incomplete.

: Ford says he wants to build a Sheppard Ave. E. subway extension, a new Finch Ave. W. subway, and then a downtown relief line. He has refused to explain how he would pay for any of them.

Olivia Chow: Chow says she would impose a property tax levy to raise $1 billion, similar to the levy Ford imposed for the Scarborough subway.

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But there’s a catch: that money, Chow says, would be divided between the relief line and “state of good repair” fixes to existing transit infrastructure. Her campaign refuses to say what portion would go to the relief line itself.

Even the eastern portion of the relief line is expected to cost at least $3.2 billion — so using even a small chunk of the $1 billion for repairs could leave the relief line hundreds of millions short.

Chow has promised annual tax increases “around” the rate of inflation. Any billion-dollar levy for the relief line would push her well above plausible “around” range. Her spokesman, Jamey Heath, said Chow hasn’t broken her pledge because the relief line levy wouldn’t necessarily be imposed “in her first term.”

“It doesn’t necessarily put us out of whack with inflation,” Heath said. “So I’m not prepared to preemptively say that we’ve broken the promise, because that’s not the case. At the same time, I acknowledge that it might be.”

Heath said Chow will release a “fully costed platform” later in the campaign. But he said even this platform will not say when the levy would be imposed, since the timing depends on what Ottawa and Queen’s Park eventually do.

: Stintz says she would pay for the city’s share of the relief line by selling a majority stake in Toronto Hydro to raise $500 million; taking $700 million in revenue from the Toronto Parking Authority and $330 million in revenue from parking tickets; and imposing a $3 levy on drivers using certain Green P garages downtown, to raise $114 million.

But Stintz’s proposal to sell Hydro might well be rejected at council, where proposals to sell even 10 per cent of the lucrative utility have always fizzled, or at the province, which would have to agree to drop a hefty tax penalty. Without the Hydro sale, her funding plan would be left with a huge hole.

“I believe that council will support this plan because its purpose is clear and all revenues will be used to create even more value for the city,” she said in an email when asked if she has a backup plan.

Revenues from tickets and the Parking Authority are already being used to fund city programs and services. So is the annual Hydro dividend, $42 million in 2013. Devoting all those funds to the relief line would likely require significant service cuts — but Stintz refuses to specify what she would cut, saying “those are decisions for council.”

“The loss of part of the annual dividend represents a less than one half of one percent of Toronto’s budget,” she said Monday. “I am confident that I’ll be able to find those savings working with council.”

John Tory: Tory has promised 53-kilometre surface rail line, largely on existing GO Transit tracks. He says it would cost $8 billion, and that he would raise at least $2.5 billion over 30 years through tax increment financing (TIF).

Under most TIF plans, the government borrows money to pay for the infrastructure. The debt and the interest are paid off using the new tax revenues from rising property values in particular nearby districts.

Tory says he would complete his “SmartTrack” project within seven years. Major new development in the TIF districts, though, would not be completed immediately, and the properties’ assessed value might not rise significantly for years — so taxpayers could easily be on the hook for early payments.

They could also be left hanging if assessment values don’t rise as much as Tory believes they will. New York City has been forced to spend more than $200 million to bail out a new subway line that was supposed to be paid for by a major new development that has not been as lucrative as expected.

Tory says one of the TIF districts would be the East Don Lands, on which a developer is proposing a massive office development of 15 million square feet. That proposal relies on council approving a plan to reconfigure the eastern Gardiner Expressway — no sure thing, especially because the realignment has not yet been studied in detail.

Other TIF districts, Tory says, would be Liberty Village and “the central core.” He will not identify the specific parts of the core whose revenue growth he would sequester for the rail line. He says he would also create additional TIF districts near other SmartTrack stops, but he has not identified them, either.

His spokeswoman, Amanda Galbraith, said the campaign has no doubt the TIF revenue will be sufficient to avoid any tax hike.

“Since 2000,” she said, “Toronto has seen new office development totaling $7 billion. We’ve had residential development of an additional $18 billion. Much of which took place during a global recession. The projected growth in East Don Lands, downtown and Liberty Village alone has been independently verified by third parties. We’re fully confident in our plan.”

David Soknacki: Soknacki has promised to issue a detailed proposal. Like Ford, he has not done so yet — though, unlike Ford, he has mused about an increase in development charges, a sales tax, or a property tax levy.

“I’m also not afraid to talk about taxes, because transit is not free,” he said in March.

Why, then, has he not tabled a plan already? There are five months before voting day, spokeswoman Supriya Dwivedi said in an email, and Soknacki wants to be precise and credible.

“We don’t have the luxury of doing a media blitz with next to no scrutiny on our numbers,” she said. “In other words, we like to really check our math to make sure it’s right, and that means running it through different analyses.”

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